conversation

1.

Argument, as usually managed, is the worst sort of conversation, as in books it is generally the worst sort of reading.

- Swift, Jonathan

2.

True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.

- Addison, Joseph

3.

I like hearing myself talk. It is one of my greatest pleasures. I often have long conversations all by myself and I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a word of what I'm saying.

- Oscar Wilde

4.

. . .everyone took an interest in the conversation, for each one was interested in what he or she said.

- Anatole France

5.

What is reading, but silent conversation.

- Landor, Walter Savage

6.

My God! The English language is a form of communication! Conversation isn't just crossfire where you shoot and get shot at! Where you've got to duck for your life and aim to kill! Words aren't only bombs and bullets -- no, they're little gifts, containing meanings!

- Roth, Philip

7.

What frightens us most in a madman is his sane conversation.

- France, Anatole

8.

I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.

- George Bernard Shaw

9.

The great gift of conversation lies less in displaying it ourselves than in drawing it out of others. He who leaves your company pleased with himself and his own cleverness is perfectly well pleased with you.

- Bruyere, Jean De La

10.

We do not talk -- we bludgeon one another with facts and theories gleaned from cursory readings of newspapers, magazines and digests.

- Miller, Henry

11.

Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affection, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood.

- Shakespeare, William

12.

An American cannot converse, but he can discuss, and his talk falls into a dissertation. He speaks to you as if he was addressing a meeting; and if he should chance to become warm in the discussion, he will say Gentlemen to the person with whom he is conversing.

- Tocqueville, Alexis De

13.

You guys are both saying the same thing. The only reason you're arguing is because you're using different words. Conversation in a dorm room quoted in Language in Thought and Action,

- Hayakawa, S. I.

14.

The character of a man is known from his conversations.

- Menander

15.

Marriage is one long conversation, checkered by disputes.

- Stevenson, Robert Louis

16.

There's a certain kind of conversation you have from time to time at parties in New York about a new book. The word "banal" sometimes rears its by-now banal head; you say "underedited," I say "derivative." The conversation goes around and around various literary criticisms, and by the time it moves on one thing is clear: No one read the book; we just read the reviews.

- Anna Quindlen

17.

There is nothing that exasperates people more than a display of superior ability or brilliance in conversation. They seem pleased at the time, but their envy makes them curse the conversationalist in their heart.

- Johnson

18.

Saying what we think gives a wider range of conversation than saying what we know.

- Hightower, Cullen

19.

In America journalism is apt to be regarded as an extension of history: in Britain, as an extension of conversation.

- Sampson, Anthony

20.

I would rather take hellebore than spend a conversation with a good, little man.

- Dahlberg, Edward